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BULLETIN of the 

Imii^rHttg »r i'0«tl| Olarolma 

OF THE 

Sural i>rI|nol Problem 



IN 



^0«tlj OIar0ltna 

W. K. TATE 

State Supervisor of Elementary Rural Schools 

REPRINTED FROM THE FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL 

REPORT OF THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT 

dF EDUCATION, 1910 



ISSUED QUARTERLY 
BY THE UNIVERSITY 



No. 24 Part II 

January, 1911 



COLUMBIA, S. C. 
Second-Class Mail Matter 




1HB STATH CO., PEINTHESj COLUMBIA, S. C. 



Mono^-ay/i 



T3 



ELEMENTARY RURAL SCHOOLS. 



To the State Board of Education. 

Gentlemen : As State Supervisor of Elementary Rural Schools, 
I have regarded myself as a special officer of the Department of 
Education to whom has been assigned special duties. The six months 
during which I have held this office have not been employed in the 
collection of statistics, nor in the tabulation of results. Complete 
statistical information concerning the status of the schools with 
which my work is connected will form a part of the report of the 
State Superintendent of Education. 

As a field of special effort, the rural schools of South Carolina is 
a virgin one. Naturally the work of the first six months has been 
directed largely to renewing a first-hand acquaintance with rural 
school conditions. I began my work after the close of the schools in 
June and have had only two months in which to observe actual school 
operations. Part of the summer was spent in visiting the summer 
schools for teachers held in various counties of the State, in holding 
conferences with the County Superintendents, and in special visits 
to communities which were endeavoring to effect consolidation of 
schools, to vote special taxes, or to further some other progressive 
educational movement. ^ Since the rural schools opened about Octo- 
ber 15th, I have spent most of the time in the field studying condi- 
tions in typical counties of the State. It has been my custom to 
meet the County Superintendent of Education and spend four days 
with him, visiting his schools, seeing the work of the teachers, talk- 
ing with the patrons and trustees, addressing meetings of the school 
community, and, with the County Superintendent, forming plans for 
the improvement of conditions. The week has usually closed with a 
meeting of the school trustees at the county seat, in which we have 
discussed school improvement in all its phases. County Trustees' 
Associations have been formed at these meetings in order to bring 
about a greater unity of effort on the part of the men to whom the 
rural districts must look for local leadership. 

At the request of the State Superintendent of Education, the 
President of Winthrop College and the County Superintendent 
of Education of York County, the Rural School Supervisor is 
endeavoring to assist in the direction of the work of Miss Leila A. 



Russell, the Special Rural School Supervisor in that county. During 
the year it is our purpose to effect in this county the very best organ- 
ization possible. Miss Russell has entered upon her work with rare 
wisdom and enthusiasm and the county is to be congratulated on 
having secured her services. Her report is submitted herewith. 

In accordance with the resolution of the State Board, I have exam- 
ined many building plans submitted for State aid under the School 
Building Act. This work has frequently involved extensive corre- 
spondence and recasting of the original plans submitted. A full 
statement of the operations of this Act forms a part of the report of 
the State Superintendent of Education. 

Through the kindness of the United States government and the 
courtesy of Senators Tillman and Smith my office has been supplied 
by the Department of Agriculture with copies of helpful bulletins 
relating to agricultural instruction in the rural schools. Five thousand 
copies each of "Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Clubs," "School Les- 
sons on Corn" and "School Exercises in Plant Production" have 
been distributed among the county superintendents and teachers of 
the State. In my work- I have endeavored on all occasions to 
emphasize "The Boys' Corn Club" and other agricultural move- 
ments. 

In accordance with the request of the State Superintendent, it 
gives me pleasure to state in a general way the rural school problem 
of South Carolina as it appears to me after^six months of work in 
this field, during which I have visited thirty counties of the State. 

STATEMENT OF THE RURAL SCHOOL PROBLEM IN 
SOUTH CAROLINA. 

We are accustomed to speak of the public education of South 
Carolina as a school system. Six months of work in the rural schools 
of the State, however, have confirmed my opinion that we have in the 
rural schools of this State nothing which can properly be called a 
system. The public schools of South Carolina began early in the 
history of the State. Much effort has been expended in their behalf. 
Many agencies have striven seriously to improve educational condi- 
tions. There has been a general advance. From one generation to 
another the improvement has been noticeable, and in many instances 
marked. This work, however, has been slow and halting because we 
have never seriously undertaken the task of making our public 
schools into anything like a system. In the various counties of the 



State I have found in certain communities a local leadership, which 
has developed and maintained excellent schools. In a neighboring 
community which has lacked this leadership the conditions not only 
have not advanced, but have retrograded in the last twenty years. 
'"Where there. is no vision the people perish," This educational 
vision in South Carolina under our prevalent lack of system is a local 
matter. Where some strong, wise, local leader has directed the 
community effort there is a good school. Where no such -leader 
exists the community languishes. 

I. BETTER COUNTY SUPERVISION NEEDED. 

I am fully convinced that the first requisite to any substantial 
improvement in the rural schools of South Carolina is a better plan 
of supervision. With an efficient County Superintendent adequately 
remunerated for his services and enabled to spend all his time visiting 
the schools and directing their development, the whole county may 
have what is now possible only in the most advanced communities. 
Jt has been my observation that people are willing to listen to the 
advice of a man who has carefully studied their needs and who pre- 
sents a well-digested plan of action. The County Superintendent is 
the educational engineer of the county. 

The greatest difference between the city schools and the country 
schools of this State consists in the better supervision of the city 
schools. The city of Columbia, for example, has fewer teachers than 
any county in the State. It has only about 3,500 chddren enrolled., 
In this city there is a superintendent who receives a salary of not less 
than $2,000 per year, who devotes all his time to the supervision of 
the schools. Each building has a principal, who gives part of his 
time to supervision, and, in addition, there are supervisors of primary 
methods, manual training, sewing and music. In common with the 
other city schools of the United States, Columbia spends from eight 
to ten per cent, of its total school expenditures for supervision. 
Moreover, the schools of Columbia are concentrated into a small area, 
which makes supervision comparatively easy. Most of the teachers 
are college graduates and have received special preparation for 
teaching. To these teachers are assigned the children of one grade 
only and the problem of teaching is thus immensely simplified. The 
teachers hold their positions from year to year and their work pro- 
ceeds with a certain mechanical regularity. 

In the schools of a neighboring county there are 150 teachers and 



more than 8,000 pupils. As in- other counties of the State, most of 
these teachers are without college training or other special prepara- 
tion for their work. They are earnest, conscientious young people 
who have completed the work of the common schools and have 
secured a teacher's certificate. More than half of them change places 
every year. Each teacher must teach all grades of work in a school 
where the children are irregular in attendance and poorly classified. 
The task before her is infinitely more difficult than that which con- 
fronts the teacher in the city school. If any teachers in the United 
States need help and supervision, it is the rural teachers. The county 
should pay for the services of a trained and experienced man, who 
should devote all his time to organizing his county, stimulating 
educational interest, visiting the schools and assisting the untrained 
teachers in their arduous tasks. The typical county in South Caro- 
lina pays its county superintendent $700 per year, which is less than 
two per cent, of the county school expenditures. The payment of 
this meager compensation assumes that he is expected to devote only 
part of his time to the duties of his office, and that he will make a 
living at some other occupation. The State is getting excellent 
returns on the money invested. 

Moreover, the superintendent of one of our city schools is elected 
for a term of years by a stable Board of Trustees. The county super- 
intendent in South Carolina must oflfer himself before the primary 
and, at considerable expense, make the race for the office. Through- 
cut his term he must continually trim his sails to the varying winds 
of popular opinion. This inevitably prevents the adoption of a com- 
prehensive and consistent educational policy. I am thoroughly con- 
vinced that to remedy this unfortunate state of afifairs and to provide 
cur rural schools with adequate and stable supervision is the first 
great duty of the people of South Carolina in the development of a 
lural school system. 

A Remedy Suggested: Allow me to suggest a scheme of super- 
vision which in my opinion would meet our needs: 

1st. There should be a county board of education, elected by the 
people, appointed by the State Board of Education, appointed by 
the State Superintendent of Education or the Governor on the 
recommendation of the legislative delegation, or in some other man- 
ner, to serve for six years, the terms of one-third of the Board 
expiring every two years. 



2d. This County Board of Education should select the county 
superintendent of schools just as the City School Board selects the 
city superintendent. 

3d. This election should be for a term of four years. 

4th. The county superintendent should be paid a salary which 
will enable him to devote his entire time to the supervision of the 
schools. The minimum salary should be $1,200 per year, 

5th. The county board of education should also be authorized and 
empowered to employ such assistance to the county superintendent 
of education as is necessary to the thorough supervision of the rural 
schools and the training of the rural teachers. 

6th. The county board of education should be empowered to levy 
a special county tax, not to exceed one mill, to be devoted to the 
supervision of the rural schools. 

When these things are done we may look forward to an era of 
steady improvement and the development of a county system of 
schools. 

II. THE TRAININX; OF TEACHERS FOR THE RURAL 
SCHOOLS. 

Any one who visits the remoter rural sections of South Carolina 
and observes the unfavorable conditions under which the teachers 
are working can not fail to be impressed with the noble spirit of 
these young people whose labors mean so much to the State. (I say 
young advisedly, because most of them are young). On them rests 
finally the responsibility of training the rising generation to efficient 
citizenship. Only a small per cent, of them have graduated from 
college, or even from a high school. Few have had any professional 
preparation for their work other than an occasional short term sum- 
mer school for teachers. 

The graduates of the normal schools, which give special prepara- 
tion for teaching, find places in the towns and cities of the State 
where the work is more congenial and the remuneration higher. 

Winthrop College and the Department of Education at the Uni- 
versity have done a great work in the training of teachers, but their 
work has failed to reach the rural school in any thorough manner. 

Most of the Winthrop students whom we find teaching in the rural 
schools are those who have attended the college one or two years 
and have not taken any of the pedagogical work. As a total result, 
it is usual to find in the rural school of South Carolina a teacher 



8 

possessed of intelUg-ence, and often enthusiasm, but who has never 
studied the special problems involved in teaching. The methods she 
employs are those which have been handed down from generation 
to generation. The ordinary school routine in many instances might 
have been found in the rural schools of the State forty years ago. 
These teachers are frequently eager for ideas which will assist them. 
In my work I have seen a half hour's assistance from the trained 
supervisor completely change a teacher's method of teaching primary 
reading. The training of these trachcrs is, next to providing efficient 
supervision, the supreme educational task of the State. Of course 
the ideally trained teacher should be a college graduate, who has also 
completed a normal course and has developed her skill by successful 
experience. It will be a long time before the rural schools of South 
Carolina will be provided with such teachers. It is unnatural to 
expect the college graduate to seek work in a rural community when 
a more remunerative city school is calling for her. As long as 
seventy-five per cent, of the teaching force in South Carolina are 
women, we may expect even the professionally trained college 
graduate to marry after a few years of teaching and leave her place 
to a less experienced successor. The average teaching life in South 
Carolina is less than four years. This instability is naturally more 
evident in the rural community where the conditions of work are 
less favorable. We may expect it to continue for many years and 
must adapt our policies to it. • 

Proposed Remedies: 

In my opinion the first step in the training of the rural teachers 
should be the appointment in each county of a trained Supervisor of 
Methods who should visit the schools, observe the work of the 
teachers, assist them in organizing their schools, in classifying their 
pupils, and in the adoption of correct methods of teaching. This 
supervisor should hold district and county meetings of the teachers, 
should prepare outlines of work, organize county reading circles, and 
meet the needs of the teachers as they appear from visits to the indi- 
vidual schools. A few years of such intelligent direction by a trained 
supervisor will double the efficiency of our unskilled rural teachers. 
The University of South Carolina and Winthrop College would find 
their widest field of usefulness in training these county supervisors. 

The next step in the training of teachers should be the re-establish- 
ment of the State Summer School for Teachers at Winthrop College. 
The work of the summer courses should be specially adapted to the 



needs of the rural schools. The. methods of organizing and classi- 
fying rural schools, methods of teaching the elementary subjects, and 
the adaptation of the course of study to the special needs of rural 
life should be emphasized in every possible way. 

I feci that the policy of the State looking to the professional train- 
ing of teachers has, in many respects, been short-sighted. Every 
year we spend $70,000 in scholarships in State institutions, for the 
training of teachers. While the State thus lavishes money freely for 
the education of people who may possibly teach, it has for many 
years refused to appropriate the most modest sum for the improve- 
ment of the teachers who are nozv actually at work in the schools of 
South Carolina. Every facility should be offered to encourage the 
rural teachers of South Carolina to better professional training. It 
might be that a reward by the State for work done would produce 
equally as good results as the payment in advance for work which 
we hope a scholarship student may do. 

In my opinion three months' courses to be offered during the 
regular school year should be planned for Winthrop College, 
designed specifically to help teachers who are actually at work and 
who expect to continue in the profession. Such courses are offered 
in many States, and while they are in no sense a substitute for a full 
course, they will at least eliminate some of the crudest of the preva- 
lent errors. 

I 

Recognition of College Diplomas: The State Board of Education 
has recognized the diplomas of many State and denominational 
colleges in South Carolina as credentials upon which teachers' cer- 
tificates shall be issued. While the academic training of many of 
these colleges is excellent, they offer in many cases no work which 
gives special training for teaching. We should recognize frankly 
the fact that the very best instruction in higher mathematics, ancient 
languages, chemistry, English literature, engineering, or military 
science does not prevent the young teacher from making the most 
egregious blunders in organizing his school, or in teaching primary 
reading and arithmetic. Even a three months' course in the elements 
of practical pedagogy would prevent the worst of these mistakes. 
If our State law continues to recognize a college diploma as entitling 
the holder to a teacher's certificate, with this privilege should be 
coupled as a prerequisite the presentation of a certificate that the 
applicant has taken at least a three months' course in some approved 
school giving normal training. 



10 

The Certification of Teachers: The present method of 
granting teachers' certificates in this State has produced 
a chaos which only one in actual touch with the situation 
can appreciate. The State Board of Education sends out twice 
every year a uniform set of examination questions for teachers' 
certificates. The papers written in answer to these questions are 
graded by forty-three county boards of education with forty-three 
different standards. On the results of these examinations county 
certificates are issued. Some counties recognize the certificates of 
ether counties, while others refuse this recognition. Some county 
superintendents and county boards are careful in issuing certificates, 
while in other counties at least twenty-five per cent, of the teachers 
£re teaching on certificates improperly and illegally granted. 

There is in existence no complete list of all the qualified teachers 
cf the State, and the compilation of such a list is impossible. Each 
county superintendent merely knows the registered teachers in his 
cwn county. This fact prevents a free exchange of teachers from 
one county to another and makes the Teachers' Agency the principal 
method of communication between teachers and school boards. As 
a partial result of a system which limits the teacher's field of 
acquaintance, it is a conservative estimate to say that one-fourth of 
ihe common school teachers teaching this year in South Carolina 
£re paying a percentage of their salaries to teachers' agencies for 
services rendered in securing their present positions. In my opinion, 
the examination questions should be prepared under the direction of 
the State Board of Education, the examination held by the county 
superintendent, as at present, the papers graded by some central 
authority, and a certificate good anywhere in the State issued 
thereon. The State Superintendent of Education could then have in 
l.'is office a complete roster of all persons qualified to teach in South 
Carolina and copies of this roster could be on file in the office of 
every county superintendent in the State. This would bring some 
order out of the present chaos and would be a material relief to all 
parties. 

III. SCHOOL FINANCES. 

The fact that the common school expenditures for South Carolina 
have doubled in the past seven years should be a source of gratifica- 
tion to every patriotic citizen. Of course we all recognize the fact, 
l:owever. that our expenditures are still far below the standard of the 
United States. 



There are three elements which should always enter into school 
support — State taxation, county taxation and local taxation. 

The mere existence of a State school system is a recognition of the 
fact that the welfare of the whole State is to be conserved only by 
providing schools for all sections. All parts of the commonwealth 
have contributed to the production of the wealth concentrated largely 
in the cities and larger industrial enterprises, and this wealth should 
share in the taxation for the maintenance of schools in the poorer 
sections. Such State taxation is provided for in the constitution and 
the principle has been given practical recognition by the Legislature 
jn the School Extension Act, the High School Act and the School 
Building Act. It should receive In the future even larger recog- 
nition. 

The county element is embodied in the constitution of the State 
in the form of the three-mill tax. 

The increase in the number of districts voting a special levy for 
the support of their schools has been specially gratifying during the 
past year. The last Legislature very wisely conditioned State aid 
under the Extension Act on the voting of at least a two-mill special 
tax. Since the money raised by special taxation is spent under the 
direction of a local representative of those who pay the taxes and for 
the support of their local schools, it is one of the most popular forms 
of taxation in South Carolina. With the additional incentive of 
State aid to those who help themselves, this form of taxation is des- 
tined to become universal. 

In connection with the voting of special taxes difficulties have 
arisen in many counties in the State because of the indefiniteness of 
the district lines and because the county tax books are kept by 
townships, rather than by school districts. It frequently happens that 
because of this indefiniteness certain residents of the district escape 
the special tax, and the poll tax and dog tax are improperly appor- 
tioned. If the district lines were definitely established by the county 
board of education and the duplicate list were entered in the audi- 
tor's books, alphabetically by school districts, rather than by town- 
ships, copies of the list could be made by the county superintendent 
of education and checked up by the district trustees with much more 
satisfactory results. There is at least one county in the State which 
pursues this plan with eminent satisfaction. The money saved to the 
county school fund in one year by such a procedure would pay the 
entire cost of a county survey to fix district boundaries. 



IV. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE. 

An examination of the statistics of the State Superintendent will 
reveal the fact that the school attendance in the rural districts of 
South Carolina is far from satisfactory. In the course of my visits 
in many counties during the past two months I have rarely found 
more than fifty per cent, of the ordinary annual enrollment actually 
in school. In many instances not more than twenty per cent, of the 
children ordinarily enrolled were in school. This statement does 
not take into consideration the children who should be in school, but 
who do not attend at all during the session. I have made diligent 
inquiry as to the cause of this negligence. Sometimes the children 
are picking cotton or attending to some other farm work. More fre- 
quently they have simply "not started yet." I have been more 
impressed with our negligence along this line since a recent visit to 
the schools of Indiana, where in a whole county the percentage of 
attendance for the first two months of the session this year was over 
ninety-five per cent. With all our educational endeavor, it is impos- 
sible to teach children who are not in school. If the farm work 
prevents the children from coming in October, the schools should 
not be opened until the children can attend. The opening of the 
schools should be made an important event in the community and 
teachers and trustees should all combine to secure a full enrollment 
on the first day. The present irregular entrance and more irregular 
attendance prevent classification and graduation of the pupils and 
nullify the best efforts of a good teacher. 

Compulsory Attendance Lazv: I am thoroughly convinced that 
the time is ripe in South Carolina for the beginning of a compulsory 
attendance law. Only by such a law will we get into the schools some 
of the children who need most the advantages which the school 
ofTers. There are counties in the State where public opinion is 
sufficiently advanced to enforce such a law and these counties should 
be given the privilege of bringing to pass a better state of affairs in 
school attendance. In the meantime, every citizen of South Carolina 
who believes that an educated citizenship is the only guarantee of 
prosperity and true greatness, should lend his voice to the develop- 
ment of a sentiment which will put the children of the State in school 
and decrease the percentage of illiteracy. 

Definition of Enrollment: As contributory to better school 
attendance. I would suggest the advisability of changing the defini- 
tion of enrollment, upon which the constitutional three-mill tax is 



13 



apportioned to the districts of the county. At present, by the defini- 
tion of the Legislature, ten days during the previous scholastic 
session is necessary to enrollment. This encourages negligence as to 
regular attendance. If this definition were changed to average daily 
atrendance, it would give to teachers, trustees and patrons a pecu- 
niary incentive to regular school attendance and bring about at once 
material improvement in conditions. 

V. CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS AND TRANSPORTA- 
TION OF PUPILS. 

We have far too many rural schools in South Carolina. All over 
the State we find these small schools taught by one teacher and 
housed in buildings poorly adapted to school purposes, devoid of all 
beauty or attractiveness, and unprovided with the most neecessary 
facilities for school work. The teacher has all grades of pupils from 
the beginners to the high school. She has frequently as many as 
thirty-five recitations per day and even then her pupils are poorly 
graded and classified. The school does not appeal to the pride of 
the community and does not grow in the affections of the pupils. 
Only the most inexperienced teacher can be induced to undertake 
the arduous task, and changes are an annual occurence. Such a 
school has never satisfied the progressive rural community. In many 
sections of the State, fortunately, there is a strong movement toward 
the consolidation of thqse weak schools into stronger schools employ- 
ing two or more teachers. Such schools may be more easily housed 
in\ comfortable building, are provided with better equipment, and 
offer greater opportunities for satisfactory work to pupil and teacher. 
Frequently these consolidated schools become rural high schools and 
true centres of community life. It should be a State policy to accel- 
erate in every way this educational movement, which has made 
notable progress in many States of the United States and has never 
failed to bring better educational conditions. With our sparse white 
population in South Carolina it is more difficult than in some States 
to bring to a central school enough children for two or three 
teachers. Several communities in the State have adopted the plan 
of transporting at public cost the more distant children in the dis- 
trict. This plan has been used for years in other sections of the 
country and always with great satisfaction. I believe that it should 
be encouraged by offering special aid to consolidated schools which 
are willing to undertake it. The School Extension Act now limits 



14 

the State appropriation to the amount raised by special taxation, not 
to exceed $ioo. I believe that a further appropriation of $ioo to 
consolidated schools employing two or more teachers to be used in 
n.aintaining wagons for the transportation of pupils would speedily 
convince the State of the feasibility of the transportation idea. In 
lio case should the total State appropriation to the district exceed 
the local tax. 

VI. SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 

Perhaps the greatest advantage which has accrued to the State 
from the School Building Act passed by the last Legislature has 
been the opportunity given the State Board to suggest plans for 
school builcHngs, and to insist that the buildings erected by State aid 
should conform to certain well-recognized principles of school 
architecture. If this Act should be continued for five years, we 
shall witness notable improvement in school buildings all over the 
State. Nearly all the States issue special bulletins on rural school 
architecture for the information of those charged with the erection 
of buildings. Such a bulletin has been issued by Clemson College at 
the request of the State Department of Education and will, it is 
hoped, perform a much needed service for South Carolina. 

VII. CLASSIFICATION OF RURAL SCHOOLS. 

Great differences exist in the efficiency of Jthe rural schools of the 
State. In one community we find a school housed in an adequate 
building, provided with satisfactory equipment, taught by two or 
more teachers with professional training and successful experience, 
and continuing for nine months in the year. This district has per- 
haps voted a special tax and has exerted itself in every way to 
develop a school which will meet the needs of a progressive com- 
munity. 

In a neighboring district will be found a miserable makeshift of 
a school building violating every principle of common sense and 
hygiene, taught by an untrained and inexperienced teacher with a 
third grade certificate. The district perhaps does not vote a special 
tax and the school continues for only four months in the year, with 
very irregular attendance. In the record of the county superin- 
tendent and the State Superintendent of Education there 
is nothing to indicate the difference in these two schools. 
if the Department of Education were authorized to de- 
velop a scheme of classification by which the rural schools 



cf the State could be grouped into classes on the basis of building 
and equipment, number and efficiency of teaching force, length of 
term, enrollment and attendance, there would be a constant incentive 
to pupils, teacher and community to advance from the lower to the 
higher class. A county certificate might be given to all pupils who 
complete satisfactorily the course of study in the elementary school. 

VIII. THE ADAPTATION OF THE COURSE OF STUDY 
TO THE NEEDS OF RURAL LIFE. 

It has been frequently charged that education tends to take the 
boy or girl away from the farm. Many of our text-books seem to 
have been made with the city school in mind and the ideas held 
before the pupils are not those connected with the farm and country 
life. As far as possible, the course of study in the rural school 
should take its material from the life of the pupil and the community, 
should open his eyes to the possibilities of the farm, and should 
awaken in him the desire to develop the country into a satisfactory 
place of abode for a man of refined and cultivated tastes, rather than 
lead him away from it into the pursuits of the town or city. This 
adaptation of the course of study is one of the problems which has 
not yet been worked out, but which is now in the process of solution. 
The great work which has been done by "The Boys' Corn Club" in 
South Carolina during the past three years under the direction of the 
County Superintendents of Education and the Farm Demonstration 
Agents reveals the possibilities of this work of adaptation. If our 
educated boys are to become interested in agriculture as a pursuit, 
their attention must be turned in this direction while they are young. 
The best method of turning the boy's thoughts to agriculture is 
through some definite agricultural experiment in which he is 
engaged. The rural school should be the centre of inspiration in all 
work of this kind. Many agencies are now at work for the improve- 
ment of the agriculture of the State. All these forces should be 
correlated for work in the schools and should co-operate through a 
State director of agricultural education, who should be an official of 
the State Department of Education. Clemson College, the Univer- 
sity and Winthrop College should ofifer special courses for teachers 
of agriculture in rural schools and this work should receive special 
assistance by State appropriations. 



IX. NEGRO EDUCATION. 

Since the great bulk of the negroes of South Carolina live in the 
country, negro education is largely a rural school problem. Last 
year the State spent $368,000 on the education of the negro children. 
While this amount is not large when reckoned on a per capita basis, 
it is large enough to demand better supervision in its expenditure 
than has been customary in South Carolina. It has been my obser- 
vation that the negro schools of South Carolina are for the most 
part without supervision of any kind. Frequently the county super- 
intendent does not know where they are located and sometimes the 
district board can not tell where the negro school is taught. It is 
customary for the board of trustees to allot a certain amount of 
money to the negroes and allow them to use it as they please. A 
teacher is employed and no further questions are asked, except 
concerning enrollment at the end of the session. In determining this 
enrollment there are gross irregularities all over the State. Since 
the apportionment of the constitutional three-mill tax is made to the 
district on the total enrollment of whites and blacks, it is as impor- 
tant to have as correct reports from the negro schools as from the 
white. Sometimes the salary of the negro teacher is made dependent 
on the number of pupils enrolled and a direct incentive is given to 
the teacher to pad the returns and secure to the district an unfair 
advantage in the apportionment of the coiyity funds. Frequently 
mistakes in reports occur from ignorance on the part of the teacher. 
Since the negro country school is without supervision of any 
kind, it has in most cases reverted to the most primitive type and is 
wholly without adaptation to the practical needs of the negro race. 
I believe the time has come for the school authorities to recognize 
their responsibility to the State in the supervision and direction of 
negro education and the prevention of the needless waste now illus- 
trated in nearly every negro school in the State. The objections to 
negro education arise chiefly from the feeling that it unfits the negro 
for the place he must fill in the life of the State, and that the so-called 
educated negro too often becomes a loafer or a political agitator. If 
this objection be well founded, it is not a condemnation of education 
in general, but of the particular kind of negro education which we 
have been supporting. True education for every man must include 
preparation for efficiency. The best education for the negro is that 
which will enable him to do best the work which constitutes his 
contribution to the welfare of the State. This work at present is 



I? 

manual, and largely agricultural. If the negroes in South Carolina 
are to cultivate the soil, the education which they receive should 
enable thein) to cultivate the soil more intelligently and to make it 
yield better returns to them and to the owners. Practical instruction 
in agriculture and household arts, in cleanliness and sanitation, with 
the rudiments of a common school education will mean most to the 
negro and most to us all. Can we not devise a movement similar to 
the Boys' Corn Club as a means of producing a more intelligent 
cultivation of the soil on the part of the race which for years to come 
will form the principal agricultural class in South Carolina? This 
question should challenge the wisdom and patriotism of the educa- 
tional leaders of the State. 

X. THE OUTLOOK. 

The educational outlook in South Carolina is most auspicious. 
Observers of wide experience have recently said that conditions are 
more favorable now for the rapid progress of educational movements 
in South Carolina than in any other Southern State. 

All the civic and educational forces are working together to a 
common end. The spirit of co-operation needs only to be organized 
to insure success. The revision of the school law now in progress 
will give us the machinery with which to utilize the splendid forces 
now arrayed for popular education. 

XI. REPORT OF MISS LEILA A. RUSSELL, 

County Supervisor of York County. 
"Mr. W. K. Tate, State Supervisor of Elementary Rural ScJiooh. 

"Dear Sir: The following report on my work is respectfully 
submitted. 

"For the past two months all my efforts have been directed toward 
upbuilding the rural schools of York County. In the interest of 
this work a trip to Washington was made the latter part of August. 
Here a conference with Dr. Wickliffe Rose and Prof. A. P. Bcur- 
land and two days spent in the Department of Agriculture and the 
Bureau of Education securing aids and suggestions were invaluable 
to me. The enthusiasm and inspiration thus gained gave impetus to 
the work begun a few weeks later in York County with its forty- 
five school districts and about ninety schools for white children — a 
rich field for supervision. 



i8 

"The schools of the county did not open, as a general thing, until 
the last c f October or the first of November, many of them not 
before the fifteenth ; hence the greater part of the two months has 
teen spent in investigating conditions, talking with trustees and 
patrons, and making practical suggestions for improvement in 
grounds, buildings and equipment. 

"Thirty-seven school communities in nineteen school districts have 
been visited. Wherever a school was found in session time has 
been spent in observing the work of the teachers, in teaching for 
them, and in discussing with them the difficulties arising in their 
work. In sections where consolidation is needed meetings of patrons 
have been held, the plan with all its advantages presented, and its 
adoption urged. One of the most difficult problems connected with 
this work of consolidation is the location of the consolidated school 
building, each patron wishing it to be very convenient for his 
children. Believing that this consolidation is the panacea for most 
of the woes of rural schools, I have been trying to bring about the 
establishment of five consolidated schools. To this end six meetings 
of the patrons of the schools to be consolidated have been held. 

"Mr. W. K. Tate, State Supervisor of Rural Schools, has spent 
a week with me, aiding greatly in leading the people to make defi- 
rite decisions. In school district No. 5, an unconstitutional district 
containing an area of about seventy-five square miles, the people 
have decided to take the steps necessary jto divide the district into 
three districts. Two of these will have one school each, three schools 
being united in one case, in the other two. In the third district there 
are three schools, but it is believed that one of them will eventually 
aborb the other two. When these districts have been secured, an 
attempt to levy a special tax will be made in at least two of them. 

"Local taxation is becoming a more popular thing in York County. 
As a result of two meetings of patrons held, one in school district 
No. 18 and the other in No. 41, the people at once circulated petitions 
calling for an election to decide whether or not a special tax levy 
should be made. 

"The county press has taken great interest m the work and has 
been used freely to arouse the people in the country to the fact that 
their schools need attention. 

"I have written a personal letter making helpful suggestions to 
every teacher whose name could be secured, and have prepared and 
sent to them my bulletin. Suggestions for Rural Schools, together 
with several other bulletins bearing on school work. 



19 

"It is planned to have township exhibits of rural school work next 
spring, and later to make a county exhibit. It is planned, further, 
to orp^anize the teachers of the various townships into reading circles 
for the study of some line of work that will make them more efficient 
as educational forces in their communities. Catawba Township is 
the only one that has been organized thus far. Here the teachers are 
going to study Kern's "Among Country Schools." 

"Leila A. Russell, 
"County Supervisor Rural Schools, York County." 
Respectfully submitted, 

W. K. TATE, 
State Supervisor Elementary Rural Schools. 



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